My son has been sick with
porphyria since he was 12. He is now 20. We have used cannabis for seven years
to control this disease from hell. It is the only reason my son can even eat
food at this point. One time when he was 13, he was hospitalized for six weeks
and they sent him home hooked to an IV pump with intravenous feedings. They
said if he didn’t smoke mj he might never eat again. They even tried Marinol
before they gave up and sent him home. Within 24 hours he was eating food and
recovered. This is no joke. my son is alive today because of cannabis. It helps
with pain, lack of appetite, mental stress from the illness, loneliness from the
isolation, and most of all it just keeps things bearable in a place where no one
else has anything to offer. I see on the Ontario cannabis website that this is
used quite frequently by porphyria patients in Canada. My son has had no adverse
side effects from his use and has grown into an intelligent young man despite
being on cannabis for all of his adolescent years. He was the youngest that I
know of to get the medical mj card in Washington, Oregon, in California, when
the programs first opened, and he did not have a terminal diagnosis. Growing
the cannabis is a very time-consuming job, but it is the only non-toxic way to
go. There are dangers though ..My family was robbed at gunpoint in a home
invasion, and I am lucky my children weren’t killed.

--Sharon Place, mother of a
child who has used cannabis for eight years.